In 1975, Sony introduced the Betamax video recorder. Atari’s Pong was the top-selling holiday gift. And the Federal Communications Commission, fearing that one company would control local news, prohibited investors from owning both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city.

Much has changed in the past 37 years. Generations of newer technology have replaced Betamax and Pong. Newspapers face unprecedented online competition for advertising revenue and readers. Yet the FCC’s antiquated cross-ownership ban remains on the books, discouraging much-needed investments in local newsrooms.

Fortunately, Congress has required the FCC to review its media ownership rules every four years and repeal any regulations that are no longer in the public interest. As the FCC nears the end of its current review, there are encouraging indications that Chairman Julius Genachowski is circulating a draft that finally would liberalize this outdated and archaic ban on investment in the newspaper industry.

The rule bars media companies from investing in newspapers at a time when local journalism needs to be bolstered. The FCC itself has documented the effects of this shift in technology on the newspaper industry. In the acclaimed July 2011 report on local journalism headed up by noted online journalist Steve Waldman, the FCC found that more than 200 newspapers closed or eliminated a newsprint edition between 2007 and 2010. Daily newspapers reduced their annual editorial spending by $1.6 billion per year between 2006 and 2009. More than 13,000 journalists have left the industry since 2007. American Journalism Review estimates that the number of print reporters at state capitols dropped by one-third between 2003 and the spring of 2009.

Our members work hard day after day to fund provocative, important journalistic efforts, and the successes they have been able to achieve despite the economic pressures have been amazing. But the Waldman report found our industry’s economic challenges have led to significant reductions in local investigative reporting and public affairs journalism, particularly in smaller communities. Robust journalism is expensive, and no other medium dedicates the same resources to news-gathering that newspapers have invested for decades. We agree with the FCC’s conclusion that “the growing number of Web outlets relies on a relatively fixed, or declining, pool of original reporting provided by traditional media.”

There are no magic solutions to this problem. But eliminating the cross-ownership ban would help significantly. Barring companies that truly care about news – such as CBS, Disney, Univision and others – from investing in newspapers simply makes no sense. And journalists at cross-owned newspapers and television stations collaborate on long-term investigative projects and share breaking news tips. According to FCC-commissioned research, a cross-owned television station produces nearly 50 percent more local news, airs 30 percent more coverage of state and local political candidates, and devotes 40 percent more time to candidates’ speeches and comments.

The FCC enacted the cross-ownership ban to prevent a single company from controlling a community’s sources of information. But the FCC has commissioned numerous media ownership studies in recent years, and none have found evidence that cross-ownership reduces media diversity.

Quite simply, the cross-ownership ban has outlived its original purpose and no longer serves the public interest. As the FCC concludes its review of the ownership regulations, we hope that it will relegate this regulatory relic to the dustbin, next to the Betamax tapes and Pong consoles.

Caroline H. Little is president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America in Arlington, Va.